Tobias is starting to suspect (Mach Seven is starting to suspect, gotta habituate using his superhero name in costume) - Mach Seven is starting to suspect that patrolling for random muggings just doesn't work very well if you don't have powers suited for it. Easier to find a mugging victim than stumble across a mugging right as it happens. Zepharthalin can fly around and catch people from the air, sometimes, a peregrine falcon can cover more ground than a human even with super speed and roller blades, but even so it's not terribly often that a search turns up anything. And Mach Seven isn't yet a big enough name for his mere presence on the street to be much of a deterrent. There's only so much you can do in the superhero-costume department by scouring thrift stores, too. He's pretty sure he just looks like a goofy college student too old for roller blades and overly paranoid about wiping out and skinning his knee.

But still - he's an actual bona fide legit superhero. He doesn't see a lot of action, but he has managed to stop a couple of muggers. Soon enough, he thinks, people will start to recognize him. That feels pretty good.

"Gonna start by heading back to the scene of the crime and asking around to see if anyone saw anything," Seven says. "Sound good to you guys?" (Holy fuck is it weird to talk to someone else's daemon when their person isn't around and you're pretending they're your daemon.)

So Mach Seven returns to the site of the (murder? kidnapping? disappearance?), heads into the nearest apartment building, and, with Zeph lurking out of sight of the doorframe, starts knocking on doors.

Most people are thoroughly not interested, but there is one person who answers - an old lady, scowl fixed firmly on her face, squirrel daemon perched on her shoulder. "What you on about, boy?" she demands.

By now, he's pretty sure he's figured out a pose to strike that looks confident and a shade superheroic without actually looking like he's striking a pose. Gotta look the part if people are gonna take you seriously. "Ma'am, my name's Mach Seven. I'm looking into reports of a strange event that might have occurred near here some time in the past few days." (sound confident, sound official) "It probably involved at least one superpowered individual." (sounds better than superpowered person probably) "Did you see or hear anything strange outside your building recently? A fight, or perhaps one or two people on the street seeming to vanish?"

Audibly sighing at her would be a bad idea, probably. "The person who was kidnapped might not have been superpowered themselves. They could've been one of your neighbors. I don't want to alarm you, but I need to track this guy down in order to protect you."

"Well, if you see anything that you think might be a superhero's business, I have a work phone - " He gives her the number of the burner phone he bought before his first patrol. "It's not an emergency number, I'm not gonna be on call day and night or anything. But if you see anything suspicious and want a super-person to be paying attention to it, feel free to give me a call."

"She lied, a few times. She knows of several people missing. Mostly those less likely to be missed - the homeless, the socially disadvantaged, the mentally ill. She's more interested in the strange happenings than 'none of my business' indicates, but I couldn't get more since she technically listed some true things."

"For my part, my gut tells me she's just gawking, but we probably won't get much else out of her either way. Meanwhile - if several people have disappeared recently, then more people might disappear in the near future, and that, I believe, spells stakeout."